The goal of our research is to enhance understanding of the behavior of chemical systems relevant to biochemistry. A wide variety of methods including 1H and 13C NMR, ESR, kinetics, and UV spectroscopy are being used to study proton transfers, charge-transfer complexation, normal and inverted micelles, gels, interfaces, and enzyme models. Most recently, we have been concerned with the properties of molecules assembled in aggregates as opposed to the isolated state in solution. We have found remarkable differences between the aggregated and monomeric forms. For example, long-chain amino acid derivatives assume different rotamer populations when they become micellized. We have found that benzene rings rotate prefentially along a certain axis when incorporated into micelles. The degree of anisotropic motion depends on the depth of the benzene ring within the micellar aggregate. We have also found large pKa changes and unusually fast proton transfers at micelle-water interfaces. The pKa change of p-nitrophenol incorporated into an inverted micelle changes by as much as 4.5 pKa units. These findings and others relate to living systems where problems of organization on a molecular level are paramount.